Budget Revisions

Resource Situation

Several years after the end of a destructive war, Burundi continues to face many challenges. It is a low-income and food-deficit country. According to the 2010 United Nations Development Programme Human Development Report, it ranks 166th out of 169 countries. The majority of the population lives on less than one dollar per day. The gross domestic product is estimated at US$ 341 per capita.

According to the 2010 Global Hunger Index Report, Burundi has the second highest hunger index in the world at 38 percent, following the Democratic Republic of Congo at 41 percent. Burundi is vulnerable to natural disasters and fluctuations in international prices of agricultural commodities which affect the food and nutrition security of the most vulnerable people. The country also faces a volatile regional security situation, mainly due to the Democratic Republic of Congo. While Burundi currently hosts 32,000 Congolese and Rwandan refugees, there are over 90,000 Burundian refugees in neighbouring countries. With the improving political environment, around 67,000 returnees are anticipated in 2011-2012.

This project draws on the findings from the 2008 comprehensive food security and vulnerability assessment, the 2010 and 2009 crop and food supply assessment missions,the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report from August 2010 and a joint assessment mission conducted by the Government, WFP and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2010.

This protracted relief and recovery operation addresses Strategic Objective 1 of the WFP Strategic Plan (2008-2013) - Save lives and protect livelihoods in emergencies - and Strategic Objective 3 - Restore and rebuild lives and livelihoods in post conflict, post disaster or transition. The operation is in line with the Government’s food security and nutrition strategies and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework and addresses the Millennium Development Goals 1, 3, 4 and 7. Based on a consultative process with the Government, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations, WFP designed a country strategy for the period 2011-2014. This operation will directly contribute to the third priority identified by the country strategy: Emergency response action.

The operation will assist highly food-insecure people, including returnees, refugees and vulnerable host communities affected by successive shocks. Overall, WFP is seeking to downsize its operation from 1.1 million people in the previous operation to 547,000 in this one by carefully identifying beneficiaries who have graduated from WFP support and who no longer need assistance. The full participation of communities, local authorities and partners will be promoted at all stages of implementation and the project will help develop national capacity in order to achieve a gradual hand-over of WFP’s operation

Countries

Fifteen years of civil war since 1993, combined with extreme poverty, a fragile political process and recurrent climatic shocks, have had a strongly negative impact on Burundi’s economic and nutrition indicators.
Only 28 percent of the population is food-secure and as many as 60 percent are chronically malnourished....